There are approximately 625,000 people suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis in this country, 85,000 of whom will die within the year. The total time spent annually in combating the disease by those potentially and actually affected is about 633,333 years, and even so more than two thirds of them suffer one or more recrudescences after apparent recoveries. More than three-fourths are afflicted while their productive and earning capacities would be otherwise little, if at all, impaired. The total of the yearly costs of therapy, exclusive of consultation and attendance fees, and of the losses imposed by deaths after intervals of illness and by the duration and degree of temporary and permanent disabilities of those who survive will amount to $870,000,000.
During the past fifteen years, although the population has increased, the annual death rate has been reduced from 155,000 to 85,000, the incidence from 1,000,000 to 625,000 and the costs by